Accident · 1996-10-19

What the record says

Event date

1996-10-19

Event type

Accident

Highest injury level

Minor injury

Aircraft

McDonnell Douglas MD-88 (N914DL)

Operating rule

Part 121

Operator

DELTA AIR LINES, INC. Operator named in NTSB report

Operated by (per NTSB report)

DELTA AIR LINES, INC.

Probable cause

The Safety Board's full report is available at www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. NTSB Report AAR-97/03. the inability of the captain, because of his use of monovision contact lenses, to overcome his misperception of the airplane's position relative to the runway during the visual portion of the approach. This misperception occurred because of visual illusions produced by the approach over water in limited light conditions, the absence of visible ground features, the rain and fog, and the irregular spacing of the runway lights. Contributing to the accident was the lack of instantaneous vertical speed information available to the pilot not flying, and the incomplete guidance available to optometrists, aviation medical examiners, and pilots regarding the prescription of unapproved monovision contact lenses for use by pilots. (NTSB Report AAR-97/03)

Flight crew

Flight-crew details for this event aren't in the NTSB database extract we hold (its coverage starts with 2008 events) — a gap in our data, not an absence of crew.